There was no blood or anything. I just peeled back her shell to find a perfectly wet little chick that popped right out. Just dead. Poor thing. I'm sick, I just counted it's toes and checked it over and it is... was, perfect. The separation on the extra toes was amazing spacing. What is wrong? Do you think it's humidity?? When I got the chick out, it felt really sticky... but maybe that's normal? The more I held it, the stickier it felt. I think it must have soffocated. I wish I had caught it before it was too late.

DH and I drove to Falls City, NE today to pick up some shavings for my chickens. Drove all that way and they were out. I ended up buying flowers instead. Sounds logical, doesn't it?

Click to expand...

Something similar happened to me today too. I drove quite aways out of my way to my preferred feed store to stock up on horse feed, only to be told they were out of the kind I usually get and might get it in around 4pm (this was at 8am). I wound up getting a bag that is higher protein than usual and I just have to hope he doesn't love it too much because after this we're going back to the lower protein feed. If only I hadn't been totally OUT of feed AND had driven out of my way to get there, it wouldn't have been a big deal.

My chick DIED! It almost hatched out. Then I realized I hadn't heard it in a few minutes.. and went over and it was too quiet still in the shell. I broke all of your cardinal rules and I peeled back the rest of the shell. I think it suffocated! The inner membrane wasn't broke thru and it died!! It was a BLACK!! I really, really was hoping for a BLACK!

Click to expand...

Oh dear, I am SO sorry. What an awful deal for you. Do you have any others that will be hatching soon? Oh, by the way, I knew I had a feather duster around here somewhere but when you asked yesterday, I wasn't sure I could put my hands on it. I found it this morning while packing up a box of stuff, and didn't pack it in case you can still use it. Did you find one at Walmart? Would you like to borrow mine?

Hawkeye-I'm so sorry about the little chick! When you said it had pipped but hadn't gone ahead and zipped I was beginning to think maybe your humidity was too low, and that it was getting sticky. Was the membrane stuck to the chick when you took it out? If not, then it wasn't too dry. Other than that, I have no idea. I know some folks get 100% on their hatches, but I never have. There's always some that don't hatch. I've learned to just accept that. I try to do all I can to get as many as possible, but you just can't save them all...unfortunately.

Well crap. My air conditoner is out. DH has called several companies and they can't get out to look at it until next week. It's supposed to be HOT Saturday, and I have company coming. Isn't that the way it goes sometimes. How frustrating. I'm sitting here dripping with sweat right now, and it's not going to get any better for a while.

THEN to top it off my DH's tom cat sprayed somewhere in this room where my computer is. I have looked and looked and I can't find it. It stinks terribly. I can hardly stand to be in here. I've got to figure out where it is and clean it up. Anyone have any good suggestions for getting rid of the smell if you can't seem to find the exact source? He was only in here once, but the whole room STINKS!

HEChicken-Yep. That sounds just about like how my day is going. I decided to go out and plant the flowers in the wagon wheel planter I built last summer. The wind was blowing so hard I changed my mind and will wait till about sundown and maybe the wind will have died down a smidge by then. Gees. What a day.

Hawkeye, I'm so sorry about your chick! I don't know what makes them do that, I had 3 of my blue wheaten Ameraucanas die in the shell like that. The rest hatched fine, so I wish I knew why some make it & some don't.

tweety, I hope you're feeling better, that's no fun at all. I have had Canon Powershot cameras for years & I love them. I usually end up selling the current one on eBay & upgrading it every so often. They seem to keep their value pretty well. The one I have has an awesome zoom, it's even better than my DH's Nikon & his has fancy lenses. If we want to zoom in on something he will ask me to use my camera. It's pretty amazing what I have been able to do with it since it's only a pocket camera. I don't like to carry big clunky cameras around on vacation & honestly I think my DH is starting to see the wisdom of that. He gets tired of his heavy chunky camera hanging around his neck all the time, it gets cumbersome.

Well one more thing I was trying to sell went out the door today, so now I just need to figure out what I need to get rid of next to get that door for my incubator. I have plenty around here believe me, it's just a matter of finding the right person to buy it. The local swap sites we have on FB really have come in handy, I don't have to mess with shipping & paying fees on eBay. I still put some things on there, usually more expensive things, but for some stuff it's nice to just sell where people can come pick it up at your door. I do occasionally meet them in town if they're farther away, but for people here I make them drive to me.

THEN to top it off my DH's tom cat sprayed somewhere in this room where my computer is. I have looked and looked and I can't find it. It stinks terribly. I can hardly stand to be in here. I've got to figure out where it is and clean it up. Anyone have any good suggestions for getting rid of the smell if you can't seem to find the exact source? He was only in here once, but the whole room STINKS!

Click to expand...

Last year my kids' brought home a stray cat and our original cat reacted by pottying in places other than the litter box . I could certainly smell it but it took WEEKS until I found the source. I was so frustrated and kept trying various things to cut the odor. For a few day I'd think I'd succeeded and then it would be back. I wound up ordering two products from Amazon. One is called the Feliway Plug-in Diffuser and is supposed to calm cats that are pottying where they shouldn't. Its product page is:http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B000WHUOEI/ref=oh_details_o04_s00_i01
The second product was a spray called Anti Icky Poo Odor Remover and its product page is:http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B000I6ZC18/ref=oh_details_o04_s00_i00

Now, after battling this for months, I finally broke down, spent all this money on products, the order arrived and.....I found the source of the problem. While moving some boxes around, I found the place he was using. I won't go into detail except to say that weeks/months of a cat going in the same place without any litter to absorb it was, well, I was gagging as I cleaned it up. The only saving grace was that it was in an unfinished area of the basement with a cement floor so I didn't have to replace carpet.

Anyway, I used the Anti Icky Poo spray and I have to say it was VERY effective. By that evening the odor was gone and has never returned. I dismantled the whole corner so he no longer had a private place to go, and after that he resumed using the litter box. I never even opened the box of the Diffuser stuff. Hmmm....wonder if its too late to return it.

As for the spray, well it comes in a quart bottle and one application was all I needed so I still have most of the bottle left. If only you were closer, you'd be more than welcome to borrow it.

Sorry about the air-conditioner. We've not yet had ours on this year. Although it gets warm in the house during the day, I like this time of year when we can open the windows in the evening and it will cool way back down again overnight. It takes until mid-afternoon the next day to heat up again so we just tough it out. By July/August I have no choice but to run it and that's when my bills go through the roof.

HeChicken, thanks for the info on the spray for cat urine. We have had problems in the past with my DH's male cat spraying around the house on the carpet. We ended up having to just throw all the carpet away & have all new installed because try as I might I couldn't get that smell out. There is not much worse than male cat urine & the longer it sits the stronger the smell gets. I wish I had known about that stuff before. I noticed they do sell it in gallon jugs too on eBay, that might be a good thing to keep around, I may have to get some when I get the money.

KarenS, I forgot to say that I hope your chickens with the sniffles get better soon. Is there anything that could have caused them to get stressed for any reason?

Hawkeye-I'm so sorry about the little chick! When you said it had pipped but hadn't gone ahead and zipped I was beginning to think maybe your humidity was too low, and that it was getting sticky. Was the membrane stuck to the chick when you took it out? If not, then it wasn't too dry. Other than that, I have no idea. I know some folks get 100% on their hatches, but I never have. There's always some that don't hatch. I've learned to just accept that. I try to do all I can to get as many as possible, but you just can't save them all...unfortunately.

Well crap. My air conditoner is out. DH has called several companies and they can't get out to look at it until next week. It's supposed to be HOT Saturday, and I have company coming. Isn't that the way it goes sometimes. How frustrating. I'm sitting here dripping with sweat right now, and it's not going to get any better for a while.

THEN to top it off my DH's tom cat sprayed somewhere in this room where my computer is. I have looked and looked and I can't find it. It stinks terribly. I can hardly stand to be in here. I've got to figure out where it is and clean it up. Anyone have any good suggestions for getting rid of the smell if you can't seem to find the exact source? He was only in here once, but the whole room STINKS!

HEChicken-Yep. That sounds just about like how my day is going. I decided to go out and plant the flowers in the wagon wheel planter I built last summer. The wind was blowing so hard I changed my mind and will wait till about sundown and maybe the wind will have died down a smidge by then. Gees. What a day.

Click to expand...

It was half way zipped-- it had chipped out about half way around the egg and I could see it rolling around in there. I left for a while, thinking I'll come back to it fully out, since it was sooooo close. But instead, when I came back, the membrane that she had pecked thru, seemed to have fallen back on it and sucked down on it, sealing it all off. I immediately pulled it out and started peeling off the shell and there was nothing stuck to it except where it was working it's way out. The rest of the membrane was slick and slid right off and the chick just popped out with no blood when I tapped it out. Could that still be humidity??? Because the part where it was zipping stuck to it. But not at first-- and my humidity was holding steady. It seems like in those 15 mins I was out of the room, it's like all of a sudden it just stuck. DO you think it just took too long and it started to dry out on it?

Sorry about your air conditioner. No idea about the cat. And maybe I'm thinking about blood-- but can you spot urine with a black light??

HeChicken, thank you so much. I'm going to hope one of my other chicks hatch tomorrow. I have one left that will be soon. I think the other chick that was supposed to hatch with this one, has died. No pips, no movement, nothing. I didn't find a duster, but he seems to be doing fine for now. The other chickens are talking to him, and he chirps back. It's not the same thing, but he's active and happy for now. I was just soooo hoping he'd have a buddy soon.

Trish-- really!? You've had that happen?? Did it look like they suffocated??? I'm just going to be sick if it's my humidity. But I thought I had it right on where it should be! Maybe it took too long and the exposed membrane dried out?? Because when it was zipping, the membrane was pliable and I WATCHED it break thru and nothing was sticking to it at that point! SO,so sad. And I have a lonely chickie. I hope the other one will hatch tomorrow. Sigh.

and yes, you can detect cat urine with a black light. I'm going to have to look up that stuff on ebay for our cats. I have a really old that that uses the litterbox - sorta. She puts her front paws in and then goes. it always lands just on the edge and just outside the box. it's so frustrating. She also refuses to poop in the box. She was fine up until a couple year ago. It doesn't matter what we put under the box, it's the same thing. I keep a plastic carpet runner under it now so I can just wipe it up, but still, it goes over the edge sometimes and I know we'll have spots we'll have to clean up as she gets even older.

I got the camera in today. I wish I felt better to play around with it more, but I did take a few pictures. These are all from about 50 feet away, using the zoom. Came out pretty good.

After playing with that, I found this cool feature where you can select a color within the frame and it will turn all other colors monocrome. Here are some pictures I tested it on, playing with the exact same flower, just selecting a different color:

HeChicken, thanks for the info on the spray for cat urine. We have had problems in the past with my DH's male cat spraying around the house on the carpet. We ended up having to just throw all the carpet away & have all new installed because try as I might I couldn't get that smell out. There is not much worse than male cat urine & the longer it sits the stronger the smell gets. I wish I had known about that stuff before. I noticed they do sell it in gallon jugs too on eBay, that might be a good thing to keep around, I may have to get some when I get the money.

KarenS, I forgot to say that I hope your chickens with the sniffles get better soon. Is there anything that could have caused them to get stressed for any reason?

Click to expand...

When we moved most of them to the coop, one of the coop roos got the sniffles. Then, about a week(?) later we moved a few more birds to the coop and that's when I noticed a couple of them were sniffling and so I really watched the basement birds for awhile and sure enough, sniffles all over the place. I've gotten them under control for now with the usual treatments. My plan is to get the rest of the SSX cockerels out of the basement and on grass within the next day or two. They will have to sink or swim on their own, but the birds in the coop I'm planning to treat with Oxine so that hopefully, will take care of it. If it doesn't take care of it without all the micro-managing, I don't feel right passing along anymore of these birds to others. My goal is for them to be okay without the continual dosing with probiotics and Vet Rx. If they can't manage to do that, I'll have to figure out where to go from there.
Hawkeye, I'm so sorry about your chick. I feel like crying with you. Hoping for the best tomorrow.

Hawkeye- I am so sorry about your chick. Incubating silkies is so hard, I have a terrible time with them. I have had more late shell death and ones that half zip and quit. I have picked them out alive and they always die a few days later. I have talked to chooks about this and she thinks some silkies have a hard time hatching due to low levels of oxygen because of vaulted skull type stuff they have going on. Maybe she will pop on here and can explain it better than I can.

Ivy- A black light will find cat urine. Just turn the light off when it is dark. You will have to crawl around and there will be lots of "greenish spots" but usually cat urine is a big spot with a run typically down a wall or piece of furniture. You can use natures miracle too but I love anti icky poo. May take saturating the area a few times and leaving it to dry before it is completely gone but it is better than trying to "cover it up" with cleaner and the cat will come back and remark if it can smell the urine spot still. So excited to see pics of your new pup!

Well my pediatrics project is done now I just have finals. My goslings should be here tomorrow!! SO excited.